Its been 90 degrees here, but that hasn't stopped me from making soup for the last few weeks. In my mind September = fall = soup. Despite the hot weather. I love summer and warmth but that is one thing I missed for those few hot months - soup. It got warm and all of a sudden I was out of meal ideas. The one that I'm addicted to right now is Tomato Basil. Mmmm. I've literally been making it once a week for the last few weeks. Chad, in his kind way has informed me he's kinda tomato basil souped out. Looks like I'll have to take a break from making it for a while. At least a couple weeks. :)

Since I love this soup so much I thought I'd share the recipe. I wouldn't dare eat it without homemade croutons so I'll include that recipe too.

Tomato Basil Soup

16 Large Roma Tomatoes, peeled, and seeded

12 Cups Tomato Juice

50 Leaves Fresh Basil

3 Cups Half and Half

1 Cup Butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

Blanch tomatoes in very hot water until skin splits. Peel tomatoes and seed. Place tomatoes and juice in stock pot over medium heat. Simmer for 30 min. Puree the tomato mixture along with the basil leaves, and return the puree to stock pot. Place the pot over medium heat, stir in half & half and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Heat, stirring until butter is melted. Do not boil.

Serve with croutons, mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil if desired. Serves 12

Editor's note: We have a family of 3 so I half the recipe and we always have a lot of leftovers. I use half milk and half cream instead of half & half. I used half & half once and it gave it a weird texture. Once I peel and seed the tomatoes I puree them in the blender with the basil and then add the mixture to the pot with the Tomato Juice and then simmer for 30 minutes.

Croutons

Cut cubes of bread (I use french bread)

Melt about 1/4 Cup Olive Oil and 1/4 Cup butter

Add it to the bread in a larg bowl and mix.

Heat oven 375 degrees

Place croutons on cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes, turn bread and cook for another 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Season with any seasonings you'd like. I usually use garlic salt and paprika.

ENJOY!

Lost & Found

Chad and I were babysitting my nieces and nephews tonight and we were all out front when their parents showed up. Courtney, who went inside to say hi to our dog Tito came back saying that she had looked everywhere inside and in the backyard and she couldn't find Tito. I went and rang the doorbell, since that's always a sure way to get Tito out of his hiding place, and sure enough, no barking. No Tito. There we all went, on a big hunt in the neighborhood for Tito - 2 carloads, 2 walking, and one on a bike. A neighborhood kid even hopped on his bike to help us find him - so nice. We looked for 45 minutes, it was dark and by that time I was getting nervous we wouldn't find him. I was having visions of having to call my friend who gave us Tito and let her know we lost him.

Anyway, I wanted to check back at the house in case someone found him. We get there, say a prayer in the car and hop out of Courtney's car. I wanted to ride around on my bike to see if we could find him that way. Ethan and I go in the garage, turn on the light, I happen to glance in our car and there's Tito! He was in the car the whole time! It was a relief that he was there but boy, did I feel dumb. I had completely forgotten that I had put him in the car. Earlier that evening I had opened the door to get something and he hopped in and I closed the door and completely forgot about him. Anyway, we're sure glad he's home safe, even though he wasn't technichally ever lost. He was probably starting to wonder when he'd get the heck out of that car. Poor little guy. We're so happy he's back. Thanks to my sis Courtney and bro Spencer for continuing to look for Tito even when I told you to go home. You are Tito's true friends.

In the way of other stuff going on...We're back to school. Ethan's my big 2nd grader and I'm back to working on the playground. The first two days were problem free since the kids were still getting in the swing of things but come the third day, yep, the same old playground issues came up. Oh well. The good news is my friend Jamie is back. She had to stop working and fight cancer, which she did successfully. She's one of my favorite people. We're food friends. We both LOVE food. Whenever there's a treat in the teacher's lounge I can count on her to grab some for the both of us and then we'll chow down on our break. She's always lookin out for me. She's awesome. I'm glad she's back. The playground just wasn't the same without her.

grateful

One thing is for sure, I'll be grateful when I get a new computer. I don't blog much lately cause my computer is as slooooow as molasses.

Last weekend Chad, Ethan and I took an unexpected trip back to Chad's hometown in Cali. Chad's childhood friend Jason had passed away. Its when I go to someone's funeral, especially someone so young, it always helps me reflect on what's important in my life. Its in these moments that I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jason died from brain cancer and had been suffering with it for over 10 years. I didn't realize that he was diagnosed with it only two years after he had gotten married. Crazy. He left behind a wife and 3 young children. Admittedly, when I found out he had passed I immediately felt happy for him. I don't mean to take his death lightly, because I know his family and close friends miss him dearly. He had suffered so much, especially near the end of his life, that I feel relief for him. I feel grateful for my belief in a loving God, who has a plan and a purpose for each of us. I'm grateful that Jason is in a safe and happy place now, free from pain.

I also feel grateful for the scriptures in my life. What I love about them is I can read them over and over and get something different out of them every time. One that I've discovered recently is this one in Doctrine and Covenants, "...for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God (Doctrine and Covenants 101:16)." That scripture gives me relief from my worries and anxieties and gives me permission to relinquish this perceived control that I think I have over my life. It reminds me to just trust Him for all flesh is in His hands. Be still, have patience and let Him be God. He knows the past, the present, and the future. He's all powerful and all loving. And He knows exactly what He's doing, even when it comes to my life.

And those are just a couple of things I'm grateful for. The list goes on and on...

While Grandma Came To Visit...

We got to have grandma Judy come stay with us for the last two weeks. Since she left on Tuesday Ethan's been going through grandma withdrawls. The first night she was gone, Ethan exclaimed, "Its horrible without grandma!" The second night he started crying because he missed her so much. The third night he was crying and said he wanted to go back to the "old days." "Which old days?" I asked. "When grandma was here." "Oh, you mean two days ago?" Ethan loves his grandma.

We kept busy and had a lot of fun while she was here. The first weekend she was here we went camping with the rest of my fam. The mountains were beautiful and the lake was crystal clear. It was awesome! Loved it. I wanna go back this summer.

During the week grandma Judy's sister Arlene and cousin Shirley came to visit. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of them but we had fun going to the temple, lunch, shopping, movies, etc. During the day it was just Ethan and all the ladies. He was a trooper.

This was the first time we've floated the river since we've lived here, and we got to experience it with grandma Judy and some friends of ours. We're hooked. It was way fun.

We had some great times with grandma Judy! And she of course spoiled us like always. We miss her already.

Our Little Star

Ethan made his acting debut on stage on Friday. We were really proud of him. It was actually a fun experiment since I really didn't know how he'd feel about acting on stage in front of a crowd of people. I wasn't sure if he'd be super shy or not. He did really well, he didn't seem nervous and he was good at projecting his voice. We'll work on voice influxion at a later date. Not that I would know since I really have no flare for the dramatic. Don't even get me started on my Ozette and Dorcas days.

Here's Ethan and 3 of his cousins (Gwen, Ollie, and Rachel) who were also at the same drama camp. One of my favorite moments at the theater was when Maddie (Courtney's 3 year old) yelled from the audience "I object!" during one of the plays that happened to take place in a courtroom.

This is just a little teaser of Ethan's acting abilities. You'll notice that he's really good at directing the other kids when they're not where they should be.

Summer Stuff

So far we've had a really fun summer break. Here are a few of the highlights:

• BIKES: Chad and I finally bought bikes. I kid you not, we've wanted bikes every year for the last ten years - pretty much our whole marriage. What took us so long? I have no idea. Anywho, we bought them and LOVE them. We can go on family bike rides now. And Ethan and I have fun riding around together. Yay for us!


• JUNE: Is all about celebrations for us. Within a week span we celebrate Chad's birthday, father's day and our anniversary. We've been married 10 wonderful years!


• DENVER: This is a picture of the Denver roadtrippin' crew, minus Carrie and Fiona (the dog). They were one of our fun little pit stops on the way home. Carrie is the BEST host ever. She had a bottle of water, chapstick and chocolate/candies waiting for us on our beds. She even had our names written on the bottles. I know, she's the best. That was honestly one of Ethan's highlights of the whole trip, was stopping at Carrie and Todd's.
• Well, that's it for pictures on our Denver trip. I decided to take out my camera for the first time on the way home of our 8 day trip. LAME! It was a fun trip, despite the lack o' pics. We got to hang with my brother Ben and his family. Chad came out by plane. The guys played tennis. It rained. We ate. It rained. We ate some more. We visited Adam and Mindi. It rained. We talked. We laughed. We played games. We swam. It rained. And I have no idea what the kids did, they pretty much just entertained themselves the whole time. :)
  
• DRAMA CAMP: Ethan's in drama camp this week. He'll get to be in a play at the end of the week to show off his new acting skills. He was chosen to be the prince in the Princess and the Pea. He's having fun but he's not happy that he's the prince. Its a known fact that he doesn't want to get married so the fact the he's playing the part of a prince looking for a princess really rubs him the wrong way. Other than that he's having a lot of fun.
• AND of course there's all that other fun summertime stuff: Park days, BBQs, free lunch, movies , watermelon, etc.
• WANNA SEE TITO FREAK? It never fails:

All Things Must Come to an End

I'll be honest, I've been counting down the days for the last month (maybe two) until school gets out. Mainly 'cause summer vacation means I don't have to be playground lady. :) Yay for me. Honestly I haven't loved the job, mainly because I feel more like a playground cop. Although there are some parts of the job that are sort of interesting to me. Being the sociology major that I am it's been fun to observe the playground from a Sociologist point of view since elementary school really is its own little society. Since being at the school I've been reminded everyday of my childhood. I've sometimes wondered who I would have been friends with if I were young again, going to that school. It's been intersting to watch the kid's playground habits, how one week they're all about four square, another week it'd be kickball, etc. They always changed. But I wondered what made them change and who instigated it.

I tried to figure out who the "popular" groups were. And what made them popular. I was witness to the birth of a "mean girl." You know that movie Mean Girls? This little kindergartener would have been perfect for that part. I watched how she and her sidekick hung on the monkey bars and the mean girl commanded her to, "DROP!" The sidekick looked at her for a second and just dropped from the monkey bars. It was crazy. I was shocked at the power she had over her friends. A whole group of little kindergarteners followed this mean girl around like a little puppy. I pulled them aside once when the mean girl was off in a huff and tried to help them understand that they didn't have to put up with someone who was being mean to them. They agreed that she was mean and could be a brat sometimes, but they still wanted to be her friend. I tried to figure out what made her so popular. I never could figure it out. Maybe next year.

I wondered why one week a group of fifth grade girls would break up into two groups and be at odds with each other and then be back to playing with each other the next week. Just an FYI, out of all the grades, fifth grade girls bring the most drama to the playground. It made me happy if I was able to catch someone kicking a ball with the intent to abandon, 'cause then I knew just who I'd have run and get it. For some reason that was quite satisfying for me. Probably 'cause I knew I wouldn't have to run and get it. It was interesting how I could memorize who someone was just by the jacket or sweatshirt they'd wear everyday. I took pride in catching someone who was trying to be inconspicuous and have them be amazed at how I knew what they were up to. I enjoyed seeing Ethan out there on the playground and giving him a high five when he came out of the lunch room. I liked knowing when he went to the nurse, then I could go in and make sure he was ok. I liked knowing who the bad kids were and who the good kids were. I enjoyed knowing the teachers and the staff. I felt involved with the school in that reguard. There's something to be said for having a presence at your kid's school.

What I won't miss are the attitudes. That's a whole other post, but I will say this, I've realized that when kids give me attitude, I give attitude right back along with some added sarcasm. Honestly, I can be a bit of a brat and its never one of my most shining moments. Its interesting the things you can learn about yourself out on the playground. Kids these days know a lot more than I knew. It scares me. Does it frighten anyone else that a 1st and 3rd grader were calling out to 1st grade girls, "Hey Sexy! Wanna have sex with me?" I didn't even know what sex was in 1st grade. I probably still thought that children just started appearing out of the blue once you got married at that point. There were other things that I heard that made me want to homeschool Ethan. I wouldn't dare repeat them here. It was interesting when I caught two sixth graders kissing. Oh how they begged me not to tell the principal. I did. I had to. It was also frightening to know that a 5th grade girl had written a detailed account of how she was going to kill a fellow student. The Vice Principal went to the store that day and bought the parents of the girl a gun case with a lock.

Its been fun to get to know the kids. I love seeing their reactions when they see me somewhere outside of school. Some yell out, "Hi supervisor!" Some question me, "Are you the supervisor?" Some avoid eye contact. When Chad and I took Ethan to the school carnival, a group of fifth grade boys started whispering, "Look, there's the supervisor with her boyfriend." Needless to say its been quite an experience. Its been eye opening. And I'm ready for a break from elementary school dramas.